Thursday, April 01, 2010

0307: Daddy-O

SHORT:
Alphabet Antics. A charming rhyme for children that teaches them the alphabet, including many now politically-incorrect things, dangerous sequences, and some plagiarism to boot.

Alive!! With the Beat and the Heat of Today's Rock-N-Roll Generation! Daddy-O.

One of a kind - the only J-D film in which the hero is an accordion player: Truck driver Phil is forced off the road by playgirl---heavy on the play---Jana Ryan in her sports car. Later, she sees him singing in a club as "Daddy-O." He tells her she is the world's worst driver, and she challenges him to a race. They roar through the park side-by-side (in two vehicles it must be added)until apprehended by the police. A really bright gang recognizes Phil's great driving ability---(hey, he was side by side with Jana through the park)--- and they recruit him to be the driver of their really, really souped-up getaway car, although it does not have the Getaway logo on their car. Unknown to Jana, Phil is working WITH the police, and she tries to get him away from the gangsters, but she is captured by them. Phil overpowers the gang-leader (without having to resort to playing his accordion) and the rest are jailed, and he promises Jana he will give up driving for singing.

Here we have one of the best episodes of season three(3)... undoubtedly. We get an educational short, a shitty one at that, and a really bad movie about teens in their thirties. We are thrown a song, "Hike Your Pants Up" (aka, The Pants Up Song), which is a parody of the song in the movie, cleverly changed to comment on how all the characters have their pants pulled up to their chest somehow.... We're even given more Deep 13 plot with the Miracle Growth baby from the previous episode.

One notable bit about this movie is the fact that John Williams did the music.... The John Williams, composer and conductor, famous for the music from Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, etc. etc. etc., Too bad the soundtrack wasn't really all that great, but at least it didn't sound like everything else Williams has ever done.

One of my favourite bits is when Mike Nelson appears as the bespectacled thug from the movie... who looks like a muppet, by the way. The bots pointed out something along those lines when they referenced Beaker, but I've always felt he looked more like this less-known muppet. There's one specific muppet who has always wandered in to the background of Muppet News reports, wearing glasses and his teeth showing, and he squints at the camera and looks around, then looks back at the camera and his eyes get all wide as he smiles at the camera. One of my all-time favourite muppets. But anyways, back on topic for a moment... Mike comes in on the Hexfield as the guy from the movie, and it's one of the funniest bits, mostly because it's so perfect.

But without a doubt, the BEST part of this episode and a part that makes this stand out as special, is the ending. When Frank goes to "push the button" the screen goes to the credits, as normal, only to come back to Frank and Dr. F. The button is broken and they go back and forth between Deep 13 and credits quite a few times, until finally they get it figured out. One of the funniest jokes comes during that segment, when Dr. Forester states he has to go change the baby, Frank replies "But he's gotta want to change."